Chapter 1
Ever since I was a little kid, I had my whole life planned out for me. From which college I would go to, to my future job, to whatever the hell I’m wearing and so on and so forth. I think that comes with the whole package of a rich kid’s life.
At the moment I’m a junior at Blancfort, a prestigious all girls school. It would be a shame to not sent your daughter to this school because it’s supposed to be that great. At least that’s what they say. To me it’s a school full of serpents and reptiles and it’s not the girls that I’m talking about. The teachers are the worst. They’ll find every opportunity to make your life a living hell because literally nothing that’s being said between these walls will come out, ever. At least not when it’s in your favour. Do one thing wrong and you’ll get kicked out and your story will be all over the news. Not the real story of course. Facts don’t matter here. That’s why us girls should stick together and that’s exactly what we did.
‘Mila, Ella, Poppy, get in here,’ I whisper. I hold the door to the old basement under de school wide open. It stinks, there’s dust everywhere and don’t get me started on all the cobwebs that hang around in here. Files and all kinds of equipment is shattered around the floor. It’s awful here but it gets the job done. As quiet as possible we walk down the stairs, making sure to avoid the steps that make this loud creaking noise. This building is old as hell and you don’t want to get stuck here because you’ll probably be found years later. When we walk into stinky room there are already a couple of girls sitting on the ground.
‘Hi girls, come sith with us.’ Pearl, the girl that you can call our leader, makes some space for us. ‘Hope, did anyone see you walking this way?’ I shake my head. ‘No one was in the hallway and Ella manipulated the camera system. In about ten minutes they will probably work again. We have to be quick.’ Pearl nods. ‘Alright, let’s get to work then. I’ve got these flyers made by an old friend of mine.’ We all get handed a couple of flyers. I take a look at the pieces of paper in my hand. The bold letters should grab anyones attention. ‘We should hang these around the city. Hopefully we’ll get some answers,’ Pearl says. A couple of months ago, one of the girls went missing. Ava, one of the freshmen disappeared in broad daylight. In the morning she was still having breakfast with us and around noon she didn’t show up to class. As per usual, the school didn't say anything. Not to us, not to the parents. Ava was one of the nicest girls in our group, always there to help you and she was very clever as well. That's why we knew immediately something was wrong. If Ava planned on disappearing, she would've given us a heads up. A sign that would let us know what was happening. Instead we found nothing. Nothing at all. At this moment we knew something big was happening. A rich girl, that disappears not even in the night time and no ones making a fuss about it? That can't be right. What they don't know is that us girls will have eachothers back on anything. We won't settle down until Ava is safe and sound with us. They chose the wrong people to mess with.
'Is it safe to hang them around the city, where everyone can see them?' Ella asks. 'If one of the teachers sees them hanging, they could make a connection to us. They don't know about our meetings, at least I don't expect them to but we have to be very secure with this one. Money will get anyone talking. Even your friend that printed these flyers.' Pearl nods her head. 'Hmmm, that's right. What should we do with these then?' I take a moment to think about it. 'Maybe we have to do our work online. That way we can make it as anonymous as possible. We could start our own website? A forum?' I propose. 'Making a website is peanuts for me,' Ella says. 'We could use the flyers to get people talking. No one knows about her disappearing yet, our school made sure of that,' Mila says, the distaste clear in her voice. 'Let's hang them around different cities, not just this one. That way, school won't suspect anything. Who knows what will happen if they found out what we're doing.' I nod. 'And since no one knows yet, this is the perfect way.'
Poppy stayed silent the whole time. Pearl shifts her attention towards her. 'What do you think, Poppy?' Poppy looks up, the uncertainty evident in her eyes. 'I don't know. Whatever we do, the attention will be drawn to whoever is in this school. They'll know.' Pearl sighs. 'That's true. This can be even harder than we thought.' She grabs the flyers and hides them in one of the empty closets that's in this room. 'Okay, we should go back to our dorms. The camera's will start working again soon. Tomorrow, same time?' Everyone nods. We walk out of the basement in groups of three, so that if we'll come face to face with one of the teachers, they'll won't find the whole group in one the hallways. That would definitely raise heads.
I share a dorm with Mila. They didn't allow us to decorate, because they didn't want us to get distracted from work. Which consulted in grey empty walls and black furniture. Very appealing... This place is nuts but like I said before: wasn't exactly my choice. We immediately go to bed because it's way past curfew already. I'm very tired but it takes a long time until sleep consumes me. I can't stop thinking about Ava. It's not fair. Why her of all people. She didn't do anything wrong, didn't break one of the rules. It just doesn't make sense.
